Re: Peregrination - RESUB
RESUB with art correction... if you voted before please vote again!
When I was a kid, my family picked up and moved from New York to New Jersey. I had to leave all my friends behind and start a new life. It was a journey in more than just the physical sense. I had to leave the gentle, protected world of my youth and enter a place both strange and unfamiliar. It took many years, but I survived and grew. I coped with my losses and built up new gains. Eventually I even returned to New York, where I feel at home once again.
The American peregrine falcon used to be seen all over the eastern United States. About forty years ago, though, they nearly became extinct because of pesticides like DDT. They were nearly gone forever because of adversity... less than 100 of them were to be found in all of North America. But because of conservation efforts and a breeding project organized at Cornell University, the falcons have returned. Today peregrines are known to exist in the thousands, and some peregrines thrive where you might least expect them... New York City.
They nest on bridges, skyscrapers and other structures similar to the cliffs where peregrines normally reside. New York has become a haven for the peregrine, a home they have returned to after much adversity. Ever since I heard their story I have always kept an eye out for my spiritual bird siblings. They spin and swoop, bank and dive in the air... truly poetry in motion. Even their name comes from a Latin word related to movement from one place to another. I could not help but think of them when I heard this derby’s topic.
For more information about peregrines in New York, click here.
Click here to help the Peregrine Fund
From Encarta’s dictionary:
peregrination: ( pèrrəgri náysh'n ) (n) a journey or voyage
